{3:00 minutes to read} Tests get a bad rap.
As a diligent student and consummate worrier, the very mention of the word “test” has always brought a cold sweat to my brow. Ironically, I did consulting work for The College Board (also known as the company behind the SAT) later on in my adult life, much to the chagrin of my children. In fact, their antipathy for tests was so great that they jokingly accused their father of working for the devil!
For digital marketers, however, testing is an invaluable tool to dramatically boost ROI.
My most recent article focused on conversion optimization and stressed the importance of honing a website’s landing pages to “convert” carefully targeted visitors into paying customers—something much easier said than done. One solution for bridging that gap lies in A/B testing.
A/B, or “split,” testing pits two versions of the same page against one another in a randomized test to see which has a better chance of achieving a company’s marketing goals. Typical goals include gaining more click-throughs, sign-ups, purchases or downloads.
Wishpond’s blog on A/B testing has some great, detailed examples of real A/B tests and some success stories that include:
- an 11.5% increase in donations at Kiva, the micro-lending non-profit; and
- a 107% increase in sales for Express Watches, an online shop for Seiko watches.
Although A/B testing sounds sophisticated and difficult to implement, there are a number of inexpensive online tools that can help turn a rank novice into an A/B testing pro.
Grace Smith’s January 2015 blog post on Mashable summarizes the capabilities of 10 A/B testing tools ranging in price from FREE to $1,500 per month. It includes A/B testing standard-bearers like Unbounce and VWO. The list also summarizes the capability of some unique tools such as the Five Second Test from UsabilityHub. This test allows marketers to test what users remember from a page after viewing it for only 5 seconds—the same amount of time as the average browser is likely to spend on any given page.
Let us know if A/B testing sounds any more appealing than it did before you read this post. We would be happy to help you turn that spark of enthusiasm into real results.
How can A/B testing improve the effectiveness of your website?
Michael Bendit
Managing Director
Software Development Resources Inc.
888-447-1591
1825 Madison Avenue, Suite 9E
New York, NY 10035
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